I recently read a 2008 report in the Times (1) which stated that the average paedophile will abuse 200 different victims in his lifetime and it made me wonder, given the recent horrific admissions and apologies by the pope, how many priests is he apologising for? How many Priests abuse?

Nobody knows for sure how many priest abuse(2), just as the number is not known for the general population. Estimates suggesting between 2% and 4%(3) are supported by an independent survey taken in 2002 at a conference of Catholic bishops in the U.S.(4) The survey showed the percentage of abusive priests to be 4%.

After their 2005 census, the Vatican announced that there are 406,411(5) Catholic Priests in the world. As the survey suggested 4% of that number will be abusive, so one can assume that there are approximately 16,256 PERMANENTLY active paedophiles in the Catholic Church!

Of the organizational members of the Catholic Church, above the level of humble priest, there is an organizational hierarchy made up of Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals, and the Papa himself.
Now we must concede that the leaders and organizers of the world's most pervasive doctrine, are very clever men. The same sort of clever men that run banks, government, universities, multinational corporations - your MD or executive type. We must assume this because it would be ludicrous to assume that the unHoly Roman Empire was run by idiots and oafs!
No really, come on, in all seriousness, it would. The boys at the top have to be smart cookies! It's how you get to the top after all!
Anyway, if you add together all these smart cookies, the Master of the Empire and his minions, his Cardinals, his Archbishops and his Bishops, the Catholic Church's organisational hierarchy numbers some 4573 men.(6)
That's 4573 men who have to be smart enough to run the whole holy show, 4573 men who must have their finger on the pulse in order for the organisation to function. 4573 superiors of the priests.

As the Times article stated, Paedophiles abuse 200 victims in their lifetime. We have calculated so far that at any one time there are 16256 Paedophiles in the priesthood. The numbers suggest then, that the priesthood's Paedophiles will commit in their lifetime a staggering, 3,251,200 abuses.
That's three and a quarter million destroyed children!

I find no way to comprehend how smart men could have been unaware. In my opinion the numbers do not support the notion that the Pope and his 4572 helpers did not know the extent of the problem!
And this begs a further thought. This is not the first year in which abuse has occurred. Over the centuries of totalitarian rule from Rome, how many Popes and the thousands of cardinals archbishops, bishops, have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the little children, sacrificed on the alter of the church's reputation?
And thus far the Pope has offered little more than hushed, hurried apologies and pitiful compensation settlements. Where's the program of free therapy for the victims of your minions? Where's the outrage and horror that normal people feel? Where's the open and concerted effort to rid your religion of this menace?

Go on - have a witch-hunt...
You're good at those!

With a potential 3.25 million abhorrent dark clouds hanging over the Catholic church and the Pope's outrageously ineffectual attempts at a silver lining, the Pope should not only be refused the honour of a state visit but further, he should be refused entry into the UK.

This is one of the Too many questions

PEACE
Crispy

Please leave a comment - Anything will do
The best communications are often,THREE WORDS OR LESS
OR ONE OR MORE FINGERS!

Leave it to a faith school to decide what balanced means and anything is possible.
The religious person has viewed the overwhelming scientific evidence for evolution and decided instead that they'd rather believe in Magic!
Does that not better describe someone who is

uNbAlAnCeD?

"
Schools Secretary Ed Balls said the 'Children, Schools and Families' Bill was "a major step forward" in requiring all schools not only to teach children about the biology of sex but also about relationships...
"There is no opt-out for any faith school from teaching the full, broad, balanced curriculum on sex and relationship education and that is a huge step forward."
"Every school will have to teach the full curriculum in a balanced way that respects equality and is not discriminatory, but of course what we are saying is they can explain the views of their faith.
"Catholic schools can say to their pupils that, as a religion, we believe contraception is wrong, but what they can't do is therefore say they are not going to teach about contraception."

If you listen hard, you can almost hear the priests' balanced contraceptive teaching...

"Now Boys this is a nasty evil condom, it was created by Satan to help you break dogma and have sex out of wedlock! You WILL go to HELL if you use it."

"But don't they prevent pregnancy tho' sir?"

"Yes they do, Satan designed them to stop God's little angels from being born! Don't use them! You'll burn in hell for eternity!"

"But don't they stop diseases and shit Father?"

"Yes they do, but YOU should follow dogma and use ABSTINENCE! You can't get Satan's diseases if you're not doing it! You shouldn't even be thinking of doing it anyway boy! You have a filthy, filthy mind, always on dirty, nasty naked sex with its nasty evil desires and lusts! You should be ashamed boy! Drop and give me twenty... No, not that! Not here! Wait for me in the Vestry."

Hopefully, the government will be setting specific guidelines for what balanced means, although, given the current continuing scandal over expenses claims, one could suggest they themselves need a refresher course in the meaning of the word balance!

This is one of the Too many questions

PEACE
Crispy

Please leave a comment - Anything will do
The best communications are often,THREE WORDS OR LESS
OR ONE OR MORE FINGERS!

Jonathon Bartley's delicious, speculative conversation between the Pope and the Thought for the day producer would be funny if it wasn't so true, the premise at least - what could The Catholic Master authoritatively cover without giving offense? Any message he can deliver is pretty offensive to current PC Brit!
But the truth is this conversation isn't going to go like this is it?
The Papal People leader will probably waltz through, saying whatever vile nonsense he can along the way, with the BBC execs' running around kissing his ring hither and thither!

"That papal Thought for the Day pitch

Pope Benedict may fill BBC Radio 4's religion slot when he visits this year. What will he be able to get past the producers?

A BBC studio, some time in September 2010

Pope: "Good Morning. When my predecessor arrived in Britain he famously kissed the ground and later declared: 'This fair land, once a distant outpost of the pagan world, has become, through the preaching of the Gospel, a beloved and gifted portion of Christ's vineyard.' Now it seems it is turning back to pagan ways … "

This tax on banks – not you or I - has the power to raise hundreds of billions every year. It could give a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty in the UK – as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world.

Religions have holy days, days where the members must do, or not do, a thing, or things, to show their allegiance to their cause, which they call faith. Often these are called Faith Days.
As atheists we do not have these opportunities to show our equally strong and valid No god viewpoint, or to likewise take time off work for that purpose.

I propose that we, the atheist community, should collectively select a day in the year when we can show our allegiance to our cause however,

As that cause is essentially nothing - we are'For NO god'
as opposed to'For a god'
I propose that the day should be spent in silence, the absence of communication, debate.

I feel it would be an exceptionally peaceful expression of our position, which would be no more demanding, or socially disruptive, than people going missing from the workforce hither and thither to worship their chosen voodoo.

The day?

I reckon it should be something significant,
Silence on Dec 25th may prevent the many family rows that day spawns, but I suspect it would be perceived as argumentative to hold it then. I think the best thing would be to hold it on the day when the world started to grow out of the superstitious nonsense.

The day the great Charles Darwin was born...

February 12th
Atheist Day of Silence.

Any Suggestions for a more suitable day?

Is it too late for this to happen in 2010?

Is it even a good idea?

Have we as Atheists got the collective balls to stand alone in our communities and be silent?

The latest Catholic master is coming to Britain to reinforce and encourage bigotry and hatred. His current mad rantings speak completely against the genetically encoded British tradition of fair play. (I think it's why we're happy to queue! lol)
Check his latest nastiness...

Pope: I'll visit but I don't like your equality laws
“...unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.
In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.”“It is the truth revealed through scripture and tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free.”

This has not been a catholic country for almost half a millennium. The Act of supremacy (1558) told the pope to

F**K OFFANDSTAY THAT WAY

and in my opinion, the current purveyor of prejudice should take note that nothing has changed!
We still don't want the Pope peddling his poison, meddling with our right of self determination, we still don't want his nasty dirty nonsense on this green and pleasant isle!

Briton's have always had a reputation for sticking one, or more, solidly forthright fingers up at those who attempt to take our freedoms.
For Briton's...

FREEDOM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GOD

So when I hear the current religious big wig's fascistic dissin' of a country that it could be argued is fairer than God, I have to admit I do feel the need to stand up and yell...

Hey fuckwit stop speaking now,
you're making everything worse!

These bigoted and hateful anti-equality statements, will only antagonise - it has already - check any news station, newspaper, anywhere at the moment, so...

Any criminal offence that is motivated by hostility or prejudice based upon the victim’s: * disability
* race
* religion or belief
* sexual orientation
* transgenderAll hate crime is important. No hate crime is too minor to report to the police. Anyone can be the victim of a hate crime. We all have a racial identity, all have a sexual orientation, all have some sort of beliefs. Anyone of us could be targeted because of some aspect of our identity. Tackling hate crime supports each and every one of us.

Dear Papa Joe,
Just a couple more things I think you should take a look at...
1. Has the Catholic Church learned nothing since the inquisition? Persecution of the different! Sounding familiar? Right at this moment dude, you and your minions look a lot like a gender fixated version of the Ku Klux Klan!
2. How dare you use the word freedom in relation to a doctrine! A Doctrine is designed to inhibit freedom!
3. The pertinent fact of Natural Law is that ALL are born free atheists! Your doctrine's very nature seeks to curtail that freedom at birth.
4. "It is the truth revealed through scripture and tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free" - Come on dude, we can all see what this means! "The truth is ONLY what we tell you it is!" OUTRAGEOUS. You're a fuckin' disgrace to the human race!
Lastly, since you've decided to come here, don't forget the Vatican is loaded and could easily fund your security, or at least pay the estimated 20 million pound cost. Have the good grace to let the moths out of your bejeweled purse and stump up the readies, there's a good lad!

Copyright Crispy Sea

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